Intake Air Temperature Control for Supercharged Engine Intercooler
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing engine systems with mechanical superchargers face challenges in cooling intake air quickly enough when transitioning from a non-boosted to a boosted state, leading to potential abnormal combustion issues like premature ignition and knock, due to insufficient coolant flow rate during load changes.
Innovation Solution
The system supplies coolant to the intercooler even in the non-boosted range, ensuring sufficient cooling of intake air when switching to the boosted range, with an electric pump increasing coolant flow rate as needed, and adjusts intake air flow to prioritize cooling response and density.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If coolant supply to the intercooler is started only when engine load becomes high, then the system operates in a non-boosted state with lower energy consumption, but the response time for cooling boosted intake air becomes slower
Solution Approach 1:
The coolant pump is activated in advance during the non-boosted state before the engine transitions to the boosted state. This preliminary action ensures that the intercooler is already prepared with cooled coolant, enabling immediate and effective cooling of the boosted intake air when the transition occurs, thereby reducing the response time without requiring excessive energy consumption during the transition phase.
2Reliability
If coolant flow rate is increased to cool boosted intake air quickly, then abnormal combustion is prevented, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The coolant pump operates dynamically with variable flow rates based on the engine's operating state. During the non-boosted state, the pump operates at a lower flow rate to maintain readiness while conserving energy. When the engine transitions to the boosted state, the pump automatically increases the coolant flow rate to provide sufficient cooling capacity, preventing abnormal combustion. This dynamic adjustment optimizes the balance between reliability and energy consumption.
3Productivity
If the mechanical supercharger is activated in high-load range, then intake air density is increased for better combustion, but intake air temperature becomes excessively high causing abnormal combustion
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the functions of the mechanical supercharger and the intercooler into an integrated cooling and compression system. When the supercharger compresses the intake air in the high-load range, the intercooler simultaneously cools the compressed air using coolant circulated by the pump. This combination allows the system to achieve both high intake air density (improving productivity) and controlled intake air temperature (preventing abnormal combustion), resolving the contradiction between these two parameters.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration effectively prevents excessively hot intake air from reaching the engine, reducing abnormal combustion occurrences and maintaining suitable combustion torque during state transitions.
Implementation Method 1
the coolant is normally circulated to the intercooler to cool the boosted intake air
Implementation Method 2
the coolant is normally circulated to the intercooler to cool the boosted intake air
Data Source
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AI summary
An intake-air temperature controlling device is provided, which includes an engine body, an intake passage, a supercharger, a first passage, a second passage, an intake air flow rate adjuster, an intercooler, a pump, and a controller. The controller outputs a control signal to the pump so that coolant is supplied to the intercooler in a first operating range in which the intake air flow rate adjuster at least partially opens the first passage to supply intake air boosted by the supercharger to the engine body, and outputs a control signal to the pump so that the coolant is supplied to the intercooler also in a second operating range in which an engine load is below a given load, and the intake air flow rate adjuster opens the second passage and closes the first passage to supply the intake air to the engine body in a non-boosted state.